Quote:
Originally Posted by boo boo
I gotta go with Urban on this one, he's influenced a lot of great talents. Zappa, Henry Cow, Can, Tom Waits, The Residents, Public Image Ltd, Wire, Sonic Youth, White Stripes, Primus, dEUS, PJ Harvey. But generally there's not really much out there influenced by Beefheart that I don't actually prefer to Beefheart.
Trout Mask Replica is kickass and all, but I don't know about it being a stroke of genius. You could find any group of bluesmen, get them drunk out of their asses and they would probably produce something of a similar result. What I'm basically saying is I don't think simply deconstructing something (in this case, the blues) is genius in itself, I was never a big fan of the Dada movement.
I still haven't voted yet, really undecided on this one. He simply influenced a lot of artists I like and he's put out some stuff I like but a lot of stuff I generally don't care for. So I don't know if he deserves my vote or not, if I were to vote for everyone I just plain "like" I would be voting for everyone.
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Beefheart made the Magic Band practice those songs for ten hours a day in prison-like conditions for a full eight months before they even tried to record them. the album itself is built off intricate polyrhythms and unusual scales (neither pentatonic or chromatic scales make an appearance on most tracks). i mean, you might not like TMR but it's pretty safe to say that you couldn't get a bunch of blues musicians drunk and expect the same results.
that being said i don't know if i would call it a masterpiece myself. there are other Beefheart works i prefer more, but none that eclipse it in its insanity, that's for sure.